Our future is global: nursing leadership and global health

Abstract

Global health matters to every nurse everywhere. In this article we outline why. We highlight some important health issues confronting the world today; explore how these issues are being tackled; and consider the implications for nursing. We describe how nurses are making a difference in the challenging contexts, range and complexity of nursing work round the globe, and we conclude with a call to action. Nurses can influence, and become, policy-makers and politicians, and explain to them why the Sustainable Development Goals cannot be reached without strengthening nursing. In this International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, the window of opportunity is open, but it will not stay open for long. Nurses and midwives globally and locally must be ready to jump through it. We ask you to join hands, and join us.